


we were supposed to be immortal

by mirroroflit (volunteer_of_hufflepuff)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Exploration of 3B, M/M, Shadowhunters: The Ficlet Instruments, Week 12: Misperception
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 20:47:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20918372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/volunteer_of_hufflepuff/pseuds/mirroroflit
Summary: Magnus Bane had everything.Time ticks forward a few weeks.And now he has nothing..Or: an exploration of the unravelling of Magnus' life throughout 3B, and how everything he had thought to be forever - magic, home, love - turned out to be made out of nothing but dust.





	we were supposed to be immortal

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [sh_ficletinstruments](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/sh_ficletinstruments) collection. 

> **Prompt:**
> 
> One character has always thought something was true. Another demonstrates how wrong they are.
> 
> hope you enjoy my little rushed fill and interpretation of the prompt - a drink to all the things Magnus thought were true.
> 
> this was the idea I had all week, hopefully, I've executed it well.

Magic no longer crackled within him.

But he still had his home, still had Alexander.

His heart ached when he thought of Raphael, Catarina - eternal friends he would be leaving behind now with his new mortal fragility.

His magic had seemed eternal, as eternal as the future sprawling in front of him.

But Lilith - Lilith, with her hold on Jace and the fate of the world - Lilith, her threats, fiery magic looping around his neck.

Lilith had to be stopped.

Other images had also flashed before him, before he drew the circle in dark ash: the cries of Alexander when Jace left this mortal realm, if only for an hour: the Owl melting into Jace, heartbreak shining in Clary's eyes: Lorenzo, his refusal, his callous nature and egregious ego.

And then, in Edom.

The wicked smile of Asmodeus, the pleased look in his eyes.

Cat eyes like his, glinting with cruelty when he had laid out his terms - cat eyes Magnus no longer had.

His magic. Drained away by a father who had never loved his son, no matter what he might say.

Magnus had never thought he would be alive without his magic.

But he was wrong.

.

His home - his loft - the memories -

Was gone.

He had bought the original place in the 80s, when he had danced the nights away in bars long gone from the city’s nightlife, the smoke suffocating and everyone’s clothes so vivid and bright.

His loft has been his refuge, his sanctuary, the place where he had opened his heart once again.

And now - 

Gone.

But his magic was back.

The most marvellous thing.

Was it worth it?

_Yes,_ he thought, as he dabbed at the blood running from his nose and closed his eyes against his stabbing headache, _yes, it was._

.

It was too good to be true, as all things were when your life was determined to be a tragedy.

Magnus didn't scream when his magic slipped away again.

But his spirit broke.

And he stopped trying.

.

Magnus Bane had been stripped of his essence and shunted into the life of a mortal, had lost his home of decades, had lost Raphael to exile and been irreversibly cast from his beloved warlock community.

But Alexander, sweet Alexander.

He still had Alexander’s love, didn’t he?

.

As it turned out, Magnus didn’t have anything - not magic, not prowess, nor home or love.

That was all he could think, as his tears dripped down onto the carpet and the door swung to a close on one frosty Halloween.

He had been so terribly, terribly mistaken.

Alexander didn’t love him.

How was Magnus so foolish, believing he was loveable?

_It was etched into the stars as his destiny_, Magnus thought as he walked away to have memories torn from his soul, no longer under any fanciful misperceptions of love, _for him to be left with nothing but a shattered heart._

**Author's Note:**

> comments and the like are appreciated!


End file.
